New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker

On Sunday evening four high heeled ladies ran through the Lincoln Centre Plaza to breathlessly scuttle inside the New York City Ballet’s venue for their production of The Nutcracker. The lesson of the night was that New York suffers from a severe lack of taxis in December because of the Christmas rush. I can most certainly vouch for the extra people in the city.

On Saturday, a visit to see the Christmas windows on 5th Avenue turnedinto queuing to get down the street. However, that was nothing compared to the crowds at The Rockefeller Centre on Tuesday for the lighting of the Christmas tree.

Although we could hear Mariah Carey, Susan Boyle, Kylie Minogue, Jessica Simpson and many others, we could only see them on a big screen. When they began the countdown to switch on the lights everyone waited, cameras out and eyes glued to the big screen in front of us, only to get a “3,2,1 ….. (silence)….. BOOOOOO!” Yes, they didn’t show the lighting of the tree on the screen and for a crowd of thousands that was all we could see. Disappointment doesn’t even cut it.

Determined not to let the crowds keep us from feeling festive, we decided to get all dressed up for the ballet and make a night of it. We weren’t the only ones. Adults and children alike were all dressed up in their best winter coats and finest attire for the occasion. When you’re off to the venue of New York Fashion Week it would be rude not too.

The New York City Ballet did not disappoint. The sets were a series of stunning winter wonderlands, the costumes brought a twinkle to even the most cynical eye and the dancing was breathtaking. Not to mention the beautiful, surprisingly familiar, classical music coming from to orchestra. Disney’s Fantasia wasn’t such a waste of my youth afterall!

Afterwards, the four high heeled ladies felt magical and frolicked over to The Empire Hotel for a glass of wine and tapas, and to talk about all the Christmassy things they had to look forward to.